December 2017

This panel will discuss the current state of the secondary patent market, who’s buying, who’s selling, and at what price? It will look at what happens to patents after a sale, including the chance of winning on a bought patent. It will examine both standalone sales and the relatively invisible marketplace in which patents contribute significant value to a deal, including M&As, technology spinouts, JVs, tech-transfers, and exclusive field-of-use licenses.

We surveyed 30 leading technology companies to discover how much many unseen patent assertions they face in a year. Unseen patent assertions are invitations to take a patent license where there is no litigation. We use the data to extrapolate the costs to these companies.